Romance is Dead

Susan D's Texas Longhorn is something that we've never seen before. It started life as a 'hollow' 3D Wrought Iron wall hanging with wooden horns that sort of blended into the wall since it was open in the center. Susan perfectly copied the design measurements and then cut a tan/amber glass to follow the lines that the wrought iron formed. After soldering it together she mounted it behind the skull frame and now you can clearly see her wall decoration. Susan executed this perfectly.

 

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here: This gorgeous Rooster than Let finished was actually part of a larger design that she cropped down to size.  She eliminated a lot of background that extended the scene much farther to the right that didn't add anything to the Rooster itself.  By cutting down the elongated landscape Let has made the Rooster the sole focal point of the window.   What a great job and a great eye!

 

 

Up next we look at the largest circular section of Linda L's three piece Mickey Mouse Pool Decoration.  She's going to send me a picture of the finished project when each of the three pieces are mounted into the LARGE wrought iron frame that will sit pool side in her back yard.   I think the end effect is going to look wonderful and I can't wait to see it myself.

 

 

 

Annette was looking for some sort of a nursing pattern when she stumbled across this Stethoscope in our pattern drawers. She liked it but she previously had in mind a Caduceus. I told her that I could draw one up for her but rather than sitting around and wasting time while waiting for the pattern to be drawn she decided to begin this as well.  Now her Stethoscope has been completed she'll move on over to the Caduceus next.

 

 

 

 

Here we see that Mary Grace finished the first of her three Initialed Volley Balls.  Later on in this post you'll discover that she's well on her way to completing her third sports ball also.  I guess you can say that she's on a roll here!

 

  

 

 

Next we look at Cindy's version of the Fancy Fleur De Lis.  It's amazing how many different color variations you can  come up with on this considering that each of the previous versions were made with the same green, gold and purple color combination.  Stunning indeed.

 

  

 

 

Betty completed four more Petal Crosses although only two of them showed up on my camera. The other two are identical save for the color scheme and I have no clue why the pictures of them came out to be such a blurry mess. But this pair looks great, don't you agree?

 

  

 

Lorrie has been very busy while at home working on her Underwater Scene. The last time we saw this she had all of the fish cut, ground, and tacked together but that was it.  No that her water has been cut and tacked into position she brought her window in and got a border cut and ground for it.  She's taken those pieces home with her to foil so that it can be tacked onto her window next week after which she will flip it on over so she can solder the back side.

  

Susan D is working on a 3D Flower Basket but with a slight twist. Instead of making the basket out of one half circular piece she's cut it into numerous sections so that it resembles a woven pattern. She got everything cut out for this in just one class and is now ready to begin grinding.

  

Melissa has three of her birds cut out and is going to grind them and tack them together so that they don't shift all over while she's working on the leaves, branches, and background glass. In class this week she even managed to get one of the birds ground. I love her color choices and can't wait to see this completed.

  

 

Judy has begun a Humming Bird Window and already has the leaves and the flowers cut out. It's almost as if someone said, "Go" and she went off and running! But then again, it never takes Judy long to finish a window.

 

 

With the leaves cut for her Duck Window, Zoe is just about ready to tack this together so that she can cut her background sky glass from one fitted piece so that the grain of the glass flows perfectly across the sky. It's little things like that which really make a window stand out and you should be able to see what that looks like in our next post.

 

 

 

 

Sheri's pieces are coming together and the center of this Koi Fish Window is starting to form as she makes big advances while working at the grinder. There's not all that many pieces left to go on this and soon Sheri will have to think about what she's going to do for a border or possibly even a pair of borders.

 

 

 

Betty has more Crosses under way and has learned that hinge points don't have to travel left-to-right or top-to-bottom-- they can appear on a diagonal as well.  To combat that problem Betty has added a glass glob in the center of the crosses that she has on the right side of her work board.  Those small circular pieces prevent the hinge points from occurring as well as adding a bit of flair to each cross

 

 

 

Cheryl is quickly approaching the border stage of her Harley Davidson Window as the work on her lettering is nearing its end. I suspect that she'll be cutting borders for this the next time you see it.

 

 

 

 

With her second Monogrammed Sports ball finished Mary Grace has moved on over to a second version of the volleyball.   With the ball, cut ground, wrapped and it's front side soldered she'll surely begin work on the new initial when she comes back in.  Alas, you'll have to come back next week to see just what that initial will be.

 

 

 

With all of her main soldering completed on her Circular Cross Window Ann is so very close to finishing this off. In fact, the second side of this HAS been soldered and all she needs to do now are some minor touch ups and then this will be finished before you can say, 'next week'!

 

  

 

For some reason the 'pattern' like the one MiMi is working on is called a 'cartoon'. I only know that because the Worden Lamp instructions refer to them as such but I digress. MiMi is slowly but surely filling in all of the small, myriad pieces of her cartoon with glass. Once all of those pieces are covered MiMi will have the first third of her lamp ground.

 

  

 

 

June is wrapping away at her Elephant of Many Colors and not only is her grinding amazing, so is her foiling skills as well. She may say that she's going slowly but every piece of foil is perfectly aligned to each piece and that means her soldering will look even better than ever because the foil control how the solder lines look.

 

And to end thing up here we see that Martha's Fancy Fleur De Lis is all soldered and just awaiting touch ups and some hooks to finish it off.  I can guarantee that this will be among out completed pieces in our next post!

 

Just remember that although you may have reached the end here, Rock and Roll lives on!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Let Me Put That Out Of Its Misery For You

Lara finished all the work on her Louisiana Collage Window which features various scenes of life in Louisiana.  Her window features kayaking, sunshine, crabs, a tiger eyes, music, and magnolias.  The sum of all of this and more comes together wonderfully in her latest window.

 

 

 

This week we also got to see Bee's Dandelion Tribute hanging up all finished and looking pretty.   There's a lot of symbolism in this window and Bee managed to seamlessly fit it into a medium sized window.  Good job!

 

 

Judy's Carousal Horse Panel was completed and, as I suspected, it can easily be mistaken for the full sized version of this design. A carousel horse is a stained glass standard because it allows you to use color freely, and that's just what Judy did in this.

 

 

 

Lara also made this large Angel Winged heart which she will be donating. Her work on this was quick, and efficient with an incredible amount of precision thrown into the mix as well!

Annette very nearly completed this Nursing Stethoscope Window in the blink of an eye because it didn't exist at all last week and this week we see she has a nearly completed window! Annette surely puts in a lot of time while she's at home during the week and working alone like that always strengthens a students skills because it forces a person to figure out problems completely on their own.With just the back side to be soldered and some hooks to be added to this, I'd expect to see this completed next week.

 

Ann has all of her pieces ground for her Circular Cross Window and even got everything wrapped in copper foil before she called it a night.   She'll begin soldering this upon her return and before you know it this will be a finished project.

 

 

Cindy has completely soldered her Fancy Fleur De Lis and all this needs now is some touch ups, two hooks and a bath to finish it off.  Expect to see this in our next update!

 

 

 

Linda L's Mickey Mouse is very nearly completed as she is well under way into the soldering process of the final section that will fill her Mickey Mouse frame work. I can't wait to see all the pieces come together because it will put a new spin on the three pieces which also work wonderfully as stand alone windows.

 

 

 

Lorrie's Sugar Elephants are getting closer and closer to completion.   A good two thirds of this is already cut and ground.  That said I am expecting to see her Underwater Scene return to class since Lorrie told me that she's going to be ready for a border to be attached by the time her next class comes.

 

 

 

Mary Grace has assembled the letter 'G' for her Monogrammed Volleyball Suncatcher. She'll attach it to the ball when she returns, color it up and then begin on the 3rd of four different Monogrammed Sports Balls.

 

 

 

Martha is well underway on her version of the Fancy Fleur De Lis. Because hers is being made as a window Martha's had more pieces than the others that have been made and that are still under construction and as you can see she's made full use of the border by using alternating Mardi Gras colors throughout it. With the front side soldered I'm thinking that this may be completed upon her return.

  

Melissa is starting a rather impressive window that was somewhat inspired by L.C. Tiffany's Parrots Window. The birds and their placement may be completely different but the background of complex flowers and leaves gives this a Tiffany feel for sure. 

Here we see that Melissa has traced out her pattern and will begin cutting the glass out for this one bird and one flower at a time.

 

 

 

MiMi is grinding her tiny pieces and pinning them to the flat pattern of her lamp. It's important that not of the pieces extend beyond the lines or the lamp will not line up. The two pattern papers that you see below actually form just one third of the lamp.  Once everything has been ground on these two pattern papers MiMi will have to repeat the process two more times. 

 

 

 

Shelley's Cat Window is all tacked together and even got a border picked out and cut. The border color was a little problematic because she really wanted yellow glass but it just grabbed so much attention that she had to change her mind. She toned it down by picking light tan instead but that blended with the cat too much. Then we discovered this yellow/orange mix in the rack and we all agreed that it was purr-fect!

 

 

 

Susan D has begun to solder her Texas Longhorn and it's so very lose to being completed that I'm sure well see this among our completed windows next week. (This just in-- Susan has texted me a finished picture of her Longhorn but it's arrived a little to late to make this edition of the blog. Look for it next week.)

 

 

 

Cheryl is going to town on her Harley-Davidson Window and fast approaching the work that will be needed to be done on the (simplistic)borders.  Cheryl is impressing me with her skills with each passing week. 

And there you have it, Au revoir!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Don't Know Marie?!

Melissa's Bluey Window is officially complete and she made it in record time.  A faithful rendition of its cartoon counterpart Melissa's, however, utilizes real honest to goodness stained glass that shines here in the real world.

 

Betty's Lighthouse looks quite at home resting atop an outcropping of rocks in front of a bold night sky.  To add to the night time effect even more Betty opted to use black patina to keep everything dark, rather than copper which would have lightened things up too much.   A good choice for sure.

 

 

 

Annette's second Fleur De Lis looks just as good as her first one did but also has minor differences from the first of this series other than the colors.  This one has a redesigned bottom that cuts down the number of pieces in that section while maintaining all of it's style and charm.

 

 

 

Betty made this new Flowering Cross design and I think it's safe to say that she nailed it.  I wasn't sure how sturdy the center might be due to hinge points but in the end there was enough curve as well as solder in the corner joints to keep  everything sturdy.  This is a great design that I'm sure we'll see more of around here.

 

 

 

Betty also made a second Draped Cross using purple for the cloth rather than the iridised white that she used before.  This may be a new pattern for Betty but she's already got its number down!

Jan is very much back in action and filled in the missing colors of her colorful Flower Burst Window. After tacking it together she had to decide on a color for the border which was a bit perplexing. In the end she went with a heavily textured clear glass that allows the border to be visible but which prevents it from stealing any of the focus of the center design itself.

  

 

Mary Grace has three more Monogrammed Balls to make and the remaining three will all be volley balls.   The initials on each of them will be different but the background ball itself (seen below) will remain constant.   Expect to see this volley ball get it's Monogram Letter attached when Mary Grace comes back in!

  

 

 

Linda F's Bird Of Paradise Window has been ground now and she's going to concentrate on foiling all of her pieces so she can begin soldering. I can't wait to see what she decides to use for a border-- I think I might have a good suggestion for her (knowing how much she likes green).  I'm entirely sure it will match because it just popped into my head as I wrote this but I want to show it to her nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

Susan D's Longhorn Skull is really coming together now that she's got it fitting within its 3D Framework. Everything lines up perfectly and she's about ready to begin foiling her pieces so she can tack them together and then finish this all up. 

 

 

 

MiMi spent the first half of class cutting out the last of her green glass and when all 1,059 pieces of her Louis XV Lamp was completely cut out she moved on over to the grinder. Each piece must fit within the lines on the pattern or else everything will shift out of position making alignment impossible. MiMi ground 10 pieces before class ended and since she took her time cutting all of those hundreds of pieces out she's happily discovered that all she really has to do is skim her pieces along the grinder wheel and they 'magically' fit within the pattern as hoped.

 

  

 

 

Cindy's Fancy Fleur De Lis will be made the same as Annette's pair were-- as a large suncatcher.  With everything all ground she's begun foiling her pieces from the bottom up.   Knowing Cindy this may be ready to be tacked and soldered when she comes back in.

 

 

 

 

Kandise has another bird in her Line Of Birds pretty much completed. She isn't doing anything about the eyes yet-- she'll grind the holes for them after everything else is ground so that the two halves of the hole line up perfectly.  Also, you might think that picking colors for a string of birds would be easy but you'd be surprised at just how difficult that can actually be. There's a lot of decision making involved in this project.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie's now officially beyond the halfway point of her Sugar Elephant Window and her use of white glass for the background makes the bright colors of the flowers in the elephants appear even more vibrant than they ever could against a colored background.  I hate to admit this it but I'm going to be jealous of this window!

  

 

 

The Fleur De Lis may look familiar but the format has been changed in a major way here in Martha's variant of the Fancy Fleur De Lis. She's decided to make hers into a window using clear textured glass to frame it within a rectangle. She then cut her border out of the three colors that make up her FDL and alternated them evenly around the window for a delightful Mardi Gras design.

 

  

 

 

Judy got all of her green background glass ground, wrapped and then tacked into place almost as soon as she walked in the door. When that was finished she added some brass channel to the outside edge and set upon soldering. By the time class was finished so was her window! Next week she'll add some hooks to this and then take it home.

 

 

 

Everything here has been soldered on Lara's Louisiana Collage Window. All it needs now is the ever slightest amount of touching up and the 'feet' of the bridge to be tacked into position (which will be accomplished through wire work) and then a good bath and some patina will really finish it off. This is guaranteed to be finished its blog post next week.

 

 

 

 

With all of her background pieces now having been ground for her Circular Cross Window Ann is ready to begin the arduous task of foiling.  She really moves quickly through that process though so I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be ready for solder before you know it.

 

  

 

 

Linda L's Mickey Mouse Window is almost entirely ground now and she's realized that by first grinding the sides of the background glass that touch the mouse she will get a much better fit all around. The lines that surround the subject matter are probably the most important pieces where you want a nice snug fit. They define the outline of the subject and jagged edges or large gaps are always distracting. Rest assured, there are none of those here.

 

 

 

It's official.  Bee has all of her glass tacked into place and almost the entirety of the front side of her window soldered.  The end is near and I'm thinking that will happen next week.

 

  

 

 

Every week Sheri gets closer and closer to finishing the grinding on her Koi Fish Window. She's ground one of the black heads so she can see how it looks and she's pretty much decided to settle on black for the color there. Her next color choice will involve picking out a border.

 

  

 

With the letters spelling the word 'cycles' now cut out Cheryl is ready to begin cutting the black background for her newest set of letters.  Once that's finished the rest of this is essentially borders consisting of straight cuts along with some nice smooth, gradual, simple curves which  should be a  breeze for her.

 

  

 

Good night Irene!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks